Michael Moore: I have had a positive dialogue with the First Minister on a number of subjects, including the Government's commitment to implementing recommendations of the Commission on Scottish Devolution. On the question of timing, I have asked officials to work for the autumn introduction of a Bill to take forward legislative proposals, with non-legislative recommendations taken forward on a similar timetable.

Richard Ottaway: Is my right hon. Friend aware of the growing concern at the disparity in public services between England and Scotland? If he wants to retain support for the Union in England, he has to address this sooner rather than later. Will he set out a timetable to deal with these financial disparities now?

Thomas Docherty: I thank the Minister for his kind words and welcome him to his new post. The House may wish to note the support given by Scottish police forces to the Cumbria constabulary in the immediate aftermath of the incident. Will he agree to meet a cross-party delegation from Scotland once ACPOS and its counterparts in England and Wales have made their submission to the Home Office, so that we can convey the very strong feelings of the people of Scotland about firearms legislation?

Michael Moore: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his opening remarks. He will understand, I am sure, that I am not in a position to pre-empt, and have no intention of pre-empting, the Chancellor's statement introducing the Budget next week. The hon. Gentleman's representations, and those of others, are among the many being received by the Treasury and the Scotland office, and I am sure that he will pay attention when the Budget is announced next week.

Ann McKechin: I welcome both right hon. Gentlemen to their new positions in the Scotland office. Given the unique position of the Scottish media and the Government's disastrous cancellation of the tendering process for provision of local news on Scottish television, despite the winners having already been announced, what discussions has the Secretary of State had with the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport about the threat now posed to news on STV?

Harriett Baldwin: Can I praise the Prime Minister for his staunch support of the NHS and its budget, and use this opportunity to invite him to Malvern to open, some time at his convenience this autumn, our brand new community hospital?

George Osborne: In 1997, the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), as Chancellor, established, without any consultation and without telling Parliament, the tripartite system to regulate the financial system. In doing so, he removed from the Bank of England its historical role in monitoring overall levels of debt in the economy. It is well known that the late Eddie George was deeply unhappy with that decision. It is also well known that the tripartite system that the right hon. Gentleman created, and that his successor as Chancellor sustained, failed spectacularly in its mission to ensure stability in the financial markets, and the failure of certain banks cost the taxpayer a vast amount of money. Indeed, British taxpayers funded the largest bank bail-out in the world, and it was only in Britain that depositors queued in the high street to get their money back.
	The British people rightly ask how this new coalition Government will learn from the mistakes of their predecessor. The coalition agreement commits us to reform the regulatory system for financial services in order to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis, and that is precisely what we will do. First, on the structure of regulation, our plan is to hand over to the Bank of England the responsibility for macro-prudential supervision, which should never have been taken away from it. The tools for macro-prudential supervision are the subject of ongoing international discussions. We are playing a full part in that process at European and G20 level, along with the Governor of the Bank and the chairman of the Financial Services Authority. It is already clear that the tools will include capital requirements that work against the cycle, rather than with it.
	The coalition Government are also committed to handing to the Bank of England responsibility for the oversight of micro-prudential regulation. It is clear that the central bank needs to have a deeper understanding of what is going on in individual firms. My hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury will give further details of the institutional arrangements in a parliamentary statement tomorrow. It is important that the institutions involved correctly follow their own internal procedures before those arrangements are made public, and the Governor of the Bank will be talking to the court of the Bank this afternoon.
	The coalition Government will also deliver on their promise to establish an independent commission on banking. The previous Government would brook no debate about the future structure of the banks, the relationship between retail and investment banking, and the questions of how best to protect taxpayers and how to ensure greater competition in an industry that they actively sought to consolidate. The previous Prime Minister did not want anyone to challenge his opinions, but we cannot ignore this debate about the future of banking-indeed, I want Britain to lead it. We will therefore establish the commission on banking to investigate those issues. It will be chaired by Sir John Vickers, who is a former chief economist at the Bank of England, was one of the first members of the Monetary Policy Committee and is a former chairman of the Office of Fair Trading. He is a man of unquestioned experience, integrity and independence who approaches this issue with an open mind. I am today placing in the Libraries of both Houses the terms of reference and we await the conclusions of the commission.
	Unlike the last Government, this Government are prepared to confront the difficult challenges of the regulation and structure of the banks. We are prepared to learn the lessons of what went wrong, even if they were not.

Vincent Cable: Indeed. It is part of a conglomeration, but he spoke up for Stoke-on-Trent in particular. I met the chamber of commerce from that area; it came up with some excellent ideas, and I would be happy to meet it and her again. Clearly, this part of the country is deprived and needs special attention, and I am happy to give it.
	I return to the question of how the imbalances arose. Of course, there is a trend, but it was aggravated by bad policy. I shall remind Labour Members, not all of whom were here during the period, of some of the big developments that occurred and which produced this excessive decline in manufacturing and the excessive dependence on the banking sector. Five or six years ago, I and other colleagues were warning from the Opposition Benches about the bubble that was developing in the property market, the reckless bank lending that was fuelling it and the instability that it was going to create. We were dismissed at the time as scaremongers, but of course the bubble did burst, with disastrous consequences that we are now paying for.
	Going further back in time-probably to before the right hon. Member for Wolverhampton South East was a Member of the House-a very important report was commissioned by the former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown). The Cruickshank report set out graphically how the British banking industry simultaneously was pursuing short-term profits while being dependent on a Government guarantee, and was also severely damaging British small-scale business because of the lending practices being adopted. At the time, we urged the Government to act on that report, but nothing was ever done.

Richard Burden: I welcome the activist approach towards banks that the Secretary of State is outlining. He will be aware that the House has debated the situation of former workers at Longbridge who are still waiting for money from a trust fund promised to them in 2005. At the moment, that seems to be being held up by an argument between Lloyds Banking Group and the Phoenix four. Will he get involved to try to ensure that they finally receive the money that they deserve and which they were promised so long ago?

Vincent Cable: I have taken an enormous number of interventions; I will take one from the hon. Gentleman later.
	Before I leave the car industry, I must point out that these projects were part of an assistance scheme for the industry, and I think that the Opposition Front-Bench spokesman would acknowledge that they were time limited. Other projects have already made applications, which are being properly considered, but we cannot have a situation in which the car industry, or any other, assumes that it can come to the Government for money, just because it has an interesting project.
	It is worth underlining the point that, in large parts of the British car industry, brilliant companies have got through the recession without Government support. My first visit as a Minister was to the Bentley factory in Crewe- [ Laughter. ] Hon. Members might laugh, but that factory provides thousands of highly skilled jobs and a high quality product. It is a subsidiary of BMW. It was very badly hit by the recession-it lost half its output-but it kept going. The management took a big pay cut, and the workers joined them, accepting that they had joint responsibility for the company. The company survived; it is now flourishing-it has some of the most sophisticated technology in Britain-and it did all that without a Government guarantee.

Adrian Bailey: Yes. The days when the economy could be divided between the public and the private sector are long gone. Engagement between them is subtle, sophisticated and often mutually supportive. The livelihoods of millions of workers in the private sector could be affected by decisions about public investment, but public utterances fail to take that into account.
	Let me say something about individual schemes. Although it would obviously be unreasonable to expect the Secretary of State to present a comprehensive plan for support for manufacturing industry, I should have liked to hear a greater indication of the priorities that he would identify in his new role. The fact that the Government have begun by calling into question a range of initiatives taken by the last Government to support strategic industries does not augur well for the future. The argument that some of the grant and loan guarantees provided through either the automotive assistance programme or the strategy investment fund were in some way politically motivated prior to the election is a canard.
	Before the election I was a member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, which was chaired by a Conservative and which operated on an entirely cross-party and consensual basis. It criticised the then Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South East, for taking too long to implement some of the loans and grants under that scheme. I debated publicly with the Minister at the time and was vigorous in my criticism of him, and I shall be vigorous in my criticism of the current Secretary of State for trying to imply that there was anything political in that process. In my view, the delays were due to an exaggerated consideration of due diligence and other complicating factors.
	There are two helpful things that the Secretary of State could do. First, he could ensure that his colleagues do not damage demand, public confidence and industry by their public utterances. Secondly, he could resolve not to call loans and grants into question and create doubt and uncertainty in areas where they have been allocated by implying that they are there for a political purpose, because that would inevitably lead local people to believe that they are likely to be withdrawn following the change of Government. It would be playing political football not only with the livelihoods of individuals but with the strategic significance of the companies involved, particularly Sheffield Forgemasters.
	I am running out of time, but let me make one more point. There was considerable debate about the regional development agencies. Yes, it is fair to say that there were some patchy performances, and yes, in the new climate there will be reductions. However, I hope that when the Minister winds up the debate he will give a commitment that if RDA functions are to go to local deliverers, the funds that they are currently scheduled to receive will go with them.

Phillip Lee: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to catch your eye so that I can make my maiden speech. I am grateful for the courtesies that the Chamber shows to new Members when they make their maiden speeches, but, being a doctor, I am reminded of the occasion on which I stood outside the human dissection room. I feel like that now: rather anxious, rather excited, and perhaps too eager to get stuck in.
	It is customary for new Members to pay tribute to their predecessors. My predecessor, Andrew Mackay, served in the House for 29 years, representing Birmingham, Stechford for two years between 1977 and 1979, Berkshire, East from 1983, and Bracknell from 1997. It is fair to say that his reputation for constituency work was outstanding. His will be a tough act to follow, and emulating it presents a challenge that I hope to meet.
	The name "Bracknell" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Braccen-Heale, which means "bracken-covered secret place". It was first mentioned in a boundary charter in 949 AD. A thousand years later Bracknell was designated a new town, and ceased to be a secret place. Its has grown significantly since then, and has managed to attract many companies: Honeywell, General Electric, Cable & Wireless and 3M, to name but a few. But Bracknell is not just good at business; it is also a regional centre for culture, and South Hill Park is within its confines.
	The theatre at South Hill Park is named after Oscar Wilde. He is reputed to have stayed locally, and may have named his most famous stage character, Lady Bracknell, during his stay. Like, I fear, many present and former Members, I have a past in amateur dramatics. I can assure the House that I did not take the role of Lady Bracknell, but I did take the role of Jack Worthing in the same play. Members may recall that that character had two names, Ernest in town and Jack in the country. I can assure the House that I will be Philip in all places, but that I will always remember, when speaking,
	"the vital Importance of Being Earnest".
	My constituency includes two other towns, Crowthorne and Sandhurst, and the delightful village of Finchampstead. Crowthorne is perhaps best known for being the site of Broadmoor hospital and Wellington college. Sandhurst, of course, has the Royal Military Academy, but in addition it has a remarkable series of events and community activities under the banner of Sandhurst Pride. Finchampstead is a delightful part of the world. It is famous for its association with Tudor royalty, who hunted there, and is also the site of a remarkable community centre, the Finchampstead Baptist Centre. It provides wonderful views of the Hampshire countryside from Fleet Hill.
	Let me now talk about a topic that is allied to this debate. Next week we shall all be in the Chamber to listen to the Budget statement, and to hear about the dreadful finances of the country. Of course we need to make some decisions very quickly to deal with not just the deficit but the debt, but I believe that we also need to make decisions about the future balance and direction of the economy so that we can secure greater stability, sustainability and strength, an emphasis on a creation of wealth that is real rather than transitory, and more energy-related and knowledge-related independence from friend and foe alike. That is why I want to mention the space industry, which I think merits Government support. As I look around the Chamber, I suspect that there are quite a few BlackBerrys in operation. I look at the cameras and delude myself into thinking that millions have tuned in to watch my maiden speech. Both forms of communication need satellites. Someone had to make the decision to put the satellites up there, and we are really good at making them.
	The space industry is a growing area. That is why it is vital for UK prosperity. There is a multitude of economic opportunities. The industry has grown four times the average since 2000. It adds £6.5 billion to the UK economy annually. My own company, Tektronix, in Bracknell makes sophisticated measurement gear for satellites. The key point is that the industry is growing. Why is it growing? It is because we are the best at it. We have to be the best in this global economy. We also need to anticipate the direction of technological demand in the world.
	It is not just about the economy. The industry also benefits education. It inspires innovation. It inspires generations of scientists and engineers. In one poll of engineers, almost 40% cited it as the reason that they went into their chosen career. It also helps us with the environment, an issue that I am very interested in. It allows us to assess man's impact on the natural world. It also offers solutions, one example being the transfer of data into space, getting rid of terrestrial-based masts that are so energy dependent.
	The industry is also strategic. It underpins critical parts of infrastructure. It allows Government to have intelligent ways of formulating transportation plans. It is hugely important in defence, of course, and it aids our ability to wield soft power in the world.
	Space is indispensable; that is basically what I am saying. It is an open goal for us. We should be shooting at it repeatedly. The sky is not the limit when it comes to the space industry. It offers a new economy, a green economy that offers real returns, and a niche market that depends more on knowledge than on labour, which is relevant when competing with China, India and Brazil.
	I am often asked why I stood for election to this Chamber and moved away from being a doctor to being a Member of Parliament. To my mind, people who come in here should want to make this country a better place. I want to put Britain first. I do not want to be part of a Government who manage decline. One way of doing that is by having a strong high-tech sector. Government's role is to reduce tax and regulation and thereby stimulate an increase in scientific knowledge.
	I have no idea how long I have in this House. That is up to the people of Bracknell constituency to decide, but when I leave I hope that I will have contributed to putting the "Great" back into Great Britain.

Sharon Hodgson: I am thrilled to be able to welcome you to the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker. I congratulate the hon. Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee) on his very fine maiden speech. Humour is welcome in the Chamber, especially today in such a serious and important debate, and I am pleased to be able to contribute to it.
	People often talk about the north-east of England as the industrial engine room of Britain, or at least they used to. The 1980s put an end to that, unfortunately. A whole generation of workers were left without jobs by a Conservative Government who did not even see fit to try to reskill them, and told them that their "unemployment was a price worth paying". That is fine and well when you are not the one paying it.
	We were not "all in it together" when I was growing up in poverty in the north-east in the 1980s, just as again we will not be all in it together if the Prime Minister and his Lib Dem hatchet men wield their axe with impunity, as the north-east and our constituents will once again suffer the most. It took time-13 years of a Labour Government in fact-to put my own region, the north-east, back on the map as the place to be if someone wants to do business, to innovate and to manufacture-so much so that, just as the north-east led the industrial revolution of the 19th century, it is also now leading the new green revolution of the 21st century.
	I want to talk about the successful industries in my constituency and the wider region that are fine examples of that. It is clear that there are three reasons why we have a success story to tell. The first is the tenacity, skills and determination of the work force. The second is the co-ordinated work that has been done by the RDA, One NorthEast, and the ongoing commitment to the region by major manufacturers such as Nissan. The third is the support of the Labour Government for the steps taken to establish the region as a green economic zone.
	Members do not just have to take my word for it. The North East Chamber of Commerce said only last week when talking about the north-east and exports that
	"this simply emphasises the importance of continued Government support for new and existing exporters, even in the face of large scale public sector cuts."
	Therefore, I am hoping that today the Minister will be able to assure me that my constituents are not going to lose the level of strategic support from the Government and from One NorthEast, in particular, that our economy needs to stay strong and to carve out its own niche in the economy of the 21st century.
	I was delighted to hear in Prime Minister's Question Time last week that Nissan will still receive the grant-the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed it today-which will enable it to build the new LEAF car at its Washington plant in my constituency. I was also grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson) for using both her opportunities two weeks running at PMQs to raise that issue not only on behalf of me and my constituents, but on behalf of all right hon. and hon. Members in the north-east. She was able to force an answer from the Prime Minister at the earliest opportunity. This issue has major implications for all north-east Members, as we all have constituents who rely upon Nissan for their jobs, businesses and livelihoods.
	The motor industry creates over £1 billion a year in value for the north-east economy and the 260 companies in the sector are estimated to employ 26,000 people across the north-east. The production of the Nissan LEAF will bring investment of £420 million to the economy and will maintain about 2,250 jobs at the plant. However, Nissan is not the only low-carbon motoring success story in my constituency. When Tony Blair visited my constituency in February 2007 and opened the Smith Electric Vehicles new production facility in Washington, he said:
	"This will be a company that will really make its presence felt not just in the North East, but actually throughout the world".
	I am very pleased to say that he was not wrong. The company has worked with major car manufacturers such as Ford on concept vehicles, and has repeatedly secured business from companies such as Sainsbury's and TNT. The company has weathered the recession, and is now making further inroads into Europe, with new product launches all the time.
	There can be no doubting the importance of low-carbon vehicle engineering and its central role to the economy in Washington and Sunderland West. It is estimated to contribute over £500 million to the wider regional economy. Without Nissan, we would have struggled to attract businesses in the supply chain, many of which have set up a manufacturing base in the north-east. The company is estimated to provide around 13,000 manufacturing jobs in total in the supply chain. Although I am pleased that the Government will go ahead with the grant to Nissan, I cannot help but wonder why they ever thought about taking it away in the first place. The grant for Nissan to produce the new LEAF in Sunderland was delivered thanks not only to the company's commitment to the region, but because One NorthEast pushed for ultra low-carbon vehicle manufacture across the region.
	A cursory look at the latest edition of  The  Sunday Telegraph makes it clear that plans are afoot to scrap all nine regional development agencies. That has been confirmed by the Government today. That is despite us being told just a few weeks ago that where RDAs work they would remain. In yesterday's edition of  The  Journal-today we have had it clarified-I read that the RDAs will be scrapped but that a new body will be formed in regions where they can be justified, such as, I would imagine, the north-east. What is the point of that-dismantling one body that is doing the job perfectly well and replacing it with another, just so that it can have a different name? Talk about bureaucracy and wasting time and resources.
	Whenever I speak to local politicians, business leaders and entrepreneurs in the north-east, I am told the same thing, which is that One NorthEast is working well as it is. During my time serving on the North East Regional Committee-that is another thing that the coalition Government have decided to scrap-I heard glowing reports in our evidence sessions from a diverse range of individuals and organisations about the valuable work of One NorthEast. The only reason that I can see for it to be scrapped is an ideologically driven one; this is about a commitment to make cuts, regardless of whether or not those cuts are needed.
	The case I am making is not just bluster from those of us in the north-east who believe that the region needs a strong voice, because PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that for every pound invested by regional development agencies the return for the economy is £4.50-I reckon that the differential is even greater for One NorthEast. We know, too, that One NorthEast has played its part in the creation of more than 160,000 jobs. It is also vital to note that when jobs have been lost in the north-east, One NorthEast has led the response and taken the initiative to get people back into work as soon as possible. Therefore, the Government are not only taking away a proven job-creation scheme at a time of public sector cuts, but scrapping one of the most effective means of support that newly redundant workers have.
	There is no reason why we cannot continue to improve the long-term prospects of the region's manufacturing base, but it seems clear that removing the strategic level of planning and support that One NorthEast provides would be counter-productive. I wanted to say a lot more today, but our time has been curtailed so I shall merely say that I look forward to hearing the Minister's response.

Margot James: I must congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee) on his excellent maiden speech, with which I agreed in every respect. I also congratulate the hon. Member for Bolton West (Julie Hilling) on her excellent maiden speech, which was entertaining as well as informative.
	I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this important debate on support for industry, but we cannot debate support for industry in a vacuum. I do not want to dwell on the past, but none the less we want to learn from it. A lot of the Opposition's schemes for supporting business when they were in office had a rather half-hearted effect, at best. Many of the schemes, such as the capital enterprise fund, were only subscribed to by 50%. The trade credit insurance fund, which had an original budget of £5 billion, only had a take-up of less than 20 million. Apprenticeships have been hard to fill. A lot of the problems with these schemes are caused by low awareness among industry, eligibility criteria that are far too complex and rule out far too many worthy applicants, and a bureaucracy that small enterprises simply cannot cut through.

Andrew Percy: I am a former schoolteacher, and I am sure my hon. Friend will agree with me that what has happened in education over the last few years is that the gap between the best-performing and the worst-performing schools has widened, the number of children from poorer backgrounds going on to decent and good universities has fallen and more people are leaving school with poorer qualification levels and poorer standards in basic literacy and numeracy than did before the previous Government came into power.

Ian Lavery: First, I congratulate the hon. Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee) and my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Julie Hilling) on their excellent contributions, and I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make my maiden speech today, particularly during the debate on industry.
	I worked in a traditionally heavy industry-the coal industry-which, although it is now struggling for its very survival, is very strategic in terms of security of indigenous energy supplies for electricity generation in the UK. Coal still produces, on average, 33% of the electricity generated in the UK and at peak times it is not unusual for the coal that we burn to produce up to 50% of the nation's electricity requirement. Sadly, as a nation we are now a net importer of energy, importing up to 40 million tonnes of coal and burning approximately 60 million tonnes per annum. Clean-coal technologies, particularly carbon capture and storage techniques, need to be implemented without further delay if we are serious about saving the planet from its own demise.
	The Houses of Parliament have many traditional and historic protocols, one of which allows me to pay tribute to my predecessor, Mr Denis Murphy, who represented the people of Wansbeck for more than 13 years. He was a hard-working Member of the House, who at all times worked with passion, diligence and dedication for the constituents of Wansbeck. On behalf of those constituents, I should like to place on the record my heartfelt thanks to Denis and take the opportunity to wish him and his family the very best for the future. I am proud to follow in the footsteps of Denis Murphy, Jack Thompson and other Wansbeck MPs such as the much-revered Northumberland Miners Association leader Thomas Burt, who became the first ever coal mining MP in 1874. When he retired in 1918 he was the Father of the House, following a long and distinguished career that lasted for more than 44 years.
	I have worked in the coal mining industry, having been a coalface worker from an early age before graduating to that fine old school of moderacy, the National Union of Mineworkers, of which I was the elected national president up until the general election in May. I can think of no finer people to represent than those in my constituency and the miners of the UK, and I can think of no finer privilege than representing them in this House-a challenge that I greatly relish.
	Wansbeck has been heavily dependent on the coal mining industry, with more than 70,000 miners being employed at one time. It was once the epicentre of the great northern coalfield, which proudly contributed to the industrial revolution from the 18th century onwards. Many people paid the ultimate sacrifice as a result. Many women were widowed and too many children were orphaned. However, as safety and health regulation was strengthened, with the implementation of the Mines and Quarries Act 1954 and the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974, employee safety in the industry became the envy of the entire world.
	At this juncture I must stress that if recent reports are correct and the Government are looking to repeal and dilute hard-fought-for workplace safety and health legislation, which will accurately be portrayed by the general public as an attack on hard-working, decent people, I and my colleagues will campaign vigorously and oppose any such draconian measures. My experience shows clearly that the weakening of any such legislation results in the amplification of the strength of the employer at the expense of protection for the employee, increasing the current imbalance in fairness at work that many people experience. Health and Safety Executive statistics do not lie. In 2008-09, 180 people were killed at work and 132,000 had injuries reported under RIDDOR--the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995-and there were a further 246,000 reportable injuries.
	There are many challenges ahead for the people in my constituency. The heady days of the coal industry have passed, but the benefits and experience that shaped our area are still evident-the dignity, the honesty, the sincerity, the good grit and determination of both young and old shine through, even in what might be described as the dark and difficult times of the not too distant past.
	We shall make the best of our opportunities. Like other areas, we demand high standards in public services. We want schools that we are proud of and hospitals that we can rely on. We want safe streets, free from crime, and employment for all ages, with acceptable wages, terms and conditions. Above all, we want a community built on a spirit of social justice that is both equitable and fair.
	Only this week, a report published by the National Cancer Intelligence Network stated that lives could be saved if people from poorer backgrounds were as healthy as the rich. People in my area are not only more likely to suffer from late diagnosis of cancer but also from inequalities in the treatment offered. That is not acceptable. This is 2010, not the early 1800s. We will not tolerate such behaviour from those in power, and nor should we be expected to do so.
	There are many wonderful areas in Wansbeck, ranging from Bedlington to Ashington, Cambois and Morpeth, but there are also many problems. Sadly, Morpeth and its residents were victims of horrendous flooding in September 2008, when there was a month's rainfall in 12 hours and more than 1,000 properties were affected. I am working with the Environment Agency to ensure that the proposed flood alleviation scheme is delivered in full and at the earliest possible date.
	There are many fine projects in Wansbeck. The centre of the constituency is Ashington, followed by Bedlington and Newbiggin. For our area to progress and to emerge successfully from the days of heavy dependence on the coal industry we must attract new business and maintain our existing major employers, such as Rio Tinto Alcan. Our area is also heavily dependent on public sector jobs, and the Government must recognise that any attack on the public sector will have a catastrophic affect on constituencies such as mine. Opportunities for young people in employment and education must remain a top priority, while we allay the fears of the elderly and infirm and reassure them that their future is to be cherished, free from fear.
	Finally, I thank Members again for their forbearance over the last few minutes. I look forward to many lively but constructive debates in this historic Chamber and hope to emulate the many great speakers from both sides in the mother of all Parliaments.

Sajid Javid: A few weeks ago, the OECD, the G7 and the International Monetary Fund said that we have no choice but to make the cuts, so I think they would agree with what I have just said.
	We cannot rely on a benign global economic outlook as we approach the cuts. I believe that the international financial markets are at their most fragile since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008; the euro's troubles are only just beginning; the largest emerging economies in the world are about to raise interest rates, so demand will fall, which will affect global demand; and investor appetite for sovereign debt, including our own, is rapidly diminishing.
	If we are to get our economy moving again we have no time to lose, so I look forward to the emergency Budget statement that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will make next week.
	To help industry, we need to get the banks lending again. I have met many people in Bromsgrove who tell me that it has never been so difficult to get a loan. Drawing on my 19 years' experience of working in the City, I believe that bank lending will not recover until the banks are forced to admit the true state of their balance sheets. Right now, the markets just do not believe that our banks are being truthful about the problems that they face. In turn, the banks are not getting the capital that they need, so they are instead squeezing existing customers, as well as not lending.
	As well as a thorough review of financial regulation and regulators, we need an independent audit or a stress test of each British bank, eventually leading to a private sector recapitalisation of weaker institutions that are identified. In that regard, the report that was recently issued by the Future of Banking Commission-of which, I believe, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills was a member-has made some worthy suggestions.
	Also to help industry, we need a dramatically different approach to business regulation, as many of my hon. Friends have said today-an approach that is radically different from that of the previous Government. Many business men and women say that the sheer cumulative volume of regulation makes their lives so difficult. People who need to be dealing with customers and products are instead too busy complying with regulators, and many regulations are simply not necessary to keep businesses honest and safe.

Jack Dromey: First, I congratulate you, Madam Deputy Speaker, on your election and the hon. Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee) and my hon. Friends the Members for Bolton West (Julie Hilling) and for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) on their witty and wise maiden speeches.
	In 1981, I was one of the organisers of the people's march for jobs-500 unemployed men and women from the ages of 16 to 60 who marched with dignity to London, such as the mother and her son from Whaley Bridge and the 150 people who joined the march from Birmingham and the midlands. They were the victims of a Conservative Government who stood back and said that unemployment was a price worth paying. That was an error of historic proportions, which severely weakened our manufacturing base, with catastrophic consequences still being felt to this day, including in the poorest parts of my constituency-Birmingham, Erdington.
	All that stands in stark contrast to the wise decisions that were taken by a Labour Government in the depths of an unprecedented global economic crisis to embrace industrial activism. Short-term measures were taken such as the scrappage scheme on the one hand and strategic investments in Sheffield Forgemasters, Nissan, Airbus, General Motors and others on the other hand. As a consequence, the scrappage scheme alone created 400,000 jobs, with tremendous benefits for the supply chain in the automotive industry. Those strategic investments have built firm foundations in areas of growth: the nuclear industry and renewables, aviation and the car industry. Nissan is a classic example, with £20 million of public investment levering in £420 million of investment by the company, 50,000 new cars and 60,000 batteries-a good deal for Britain.
	We now have George Osborne. He is the Private Frazer of Downing street. "We're doomed. Doomed," is his daily refrain. "Labour mismanaged the economy," is the moan that we constantly hear from Ministers. It could not be further from the truth. By 2007 we had reduced borrowing and debt to beneath the levels that we inherited from a Conservative Government. Then, in a global economic crisis, we borrowed to invest, to boost the economy and the order books of the companies in my constituency, such as those in the machine tool industry-companies such as Dana, Guhring and Micro. All those benefited from the wise and brave leadership given by our Government.

Mary Macleod: I thank those who made their maiden speeches today. It is so good to hear them participate in a debate on industry. For me, this is one of the most important debates that we can have, given that we are in the middle of a recession and trying to take our country out of it. Truly focusing on industry, business, skills and innovation will take us through the recession and get us back to the strong economy that we need again for this country.
	I also feel personally that this is important. I still remember the day when I was in school and was first taught about the industrial revolution, and how that motivated and inspired me to go and do something in business. I spent the 20 years after I graduated in different sectors of business. The industrial revolution is a part of our history that made us great-one hon. Member mentioned that in his maiden speech today-and we want to make our country great again, and creating a strong economy is one way to do that.
	The Government can do several things in that respect. Reducing bureaucracy has already been mentioned by several hon. Members, but I want to emphasise what businesses with which I have worked and spoken-in Brentford and Isleworth and elsewhere-have told me. We must do something about the bureaucracy and red tape that both small and large businesses must manage, because they saw it increase under the previous Government. Instead of that red tape and bureaucracy, we need to ensure that we create the atmosphere and environment in which enterprise can flourish, and create an enterprise-led economy. That means encouraging new businesses and getting them to innovate and create new ideas. Time and again, as a country and as individuals, we have proved that we can do that so well in Great Britain. Let us get rid of the regulation, support new enterprise, and ensure that we build this country again into what it can be.
	On creating a better-balanced economy, we have perhaps limited ourselves and focused on too few sectors. I worked in financial services, which in the past has helped us to create a strong economy, and I believe it will again. However, we need to look beyond what we have done before and ask, "What is needed for the future?" I want to ensure that we are supporting the manufacturing sector, research and development, and science and technology, which need our input and support if they are to grow.
	On education and skills support for business, I welcome our proposal-it was mentioned today, in the coalition agreement and previously in the general election-for investment in apprenticeships and university places. Businesses have told me that they have spent crucial training time in their organisations teaching people how to read and write, rather than getting on and developing the skills that they need. We must begin to address that at schools, by ensuring that our children get the best possible education, so that we create the skills necessary for the country.
	The previous Government pursued wasteful policies in the past 13 years. They introduced a number of schemes that were designed to help businesses through the recession, but those have failed. We now have a duty to this country to review those projects and ensure that we are getting value for money for them. Policy is really all about the outcome; it is not about having another new idea or drafting another piece of legislation every day. It is about asking, "What will this policy actually deliver on the ground in terms of jobs and support for industry?" I encourage the Government to look again at those policies. We need to ensure that we are supporting people in skills-based training and apprenticeships. I thank my right hon. Friend the Minister for Universities and Science for visiting West Thames college in Isleworth with me. That college is a great example of a good scheme. We need to build on such schemes to ensure that we gain the skills that are required in future.
	I also encourage the Government to do everything that they can to support British industry and create that competitive environment for business investment. Given the state of the public finances, we must find ways to do that that increase opportunities for business, cut excessive expenditure and red tape, and simplify our processes. I therefore support the Government's amendment, because we should do all that we can to rebuild our country and allow businesses and people across this land to aspire to do what they can to make this country great once again.

Nicky Morgan: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, and I shall certainly look at the report, but I know from my business experience that that is not the case. Some regulations may not have been gold-plated, but I understand that in one instance that has been brought to my attention-the agency workers directive-the Government have gone further than was intended in the EU's original drafting.
	I visited a local business recently, a recruitment company. I was told that it employed one individual to help it to deal with its accounts. In one month, he has to fill in four different forms for a business register and employment survey, an annual business survey, an annual survey of hours and earnings, and a monthly wages and salaries survey. The annual business survey asked how long it took him to fill in the form. It had taken him one hour and 25 minutes-one hour and 25 minutes that could have been spent earning money for the business. Who is using all this information, and what is it being used for? Is it just going into some big black hole somewhere? We are making our businesses spend far too long on red tape and form-filling.
	Before I return to the subject of regional development agencies, I want to say something about skills and apprenticeships. I was delighted when, earlier today, the Prime Minister said that there would be support for them in the Budget, and I welcome the 50,000 additional places that are mentioned in the amendment to the motion. We have a terrific college in Loughborough, which I visited again recently. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Universities and Science has visited it with me, and his colleague the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills-my hon. Friend the Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Mr Hayes)-has visited it as well.
	The college provides a variety of courses, but its building plans-like those of the college in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Stourbridge (Margot James)-have been hit by the chaos in the Learning and Skills Council. Having committed £30,000 to the planning process for its new buildings, Loughborough college found that the LSC had massively overspent, and that it would receive none of the money. It now tells me that, although it does a tremendous job and its courses are well over-subscribed, its buildings will not be fit for purpose for much longer, and it does not know how it will find the money to fund the new ones.
	Adult learning is very important. The hon. Member for Bolton West (Julie Hilling) spoke of aspiration. I think that we should encourage better careers advice, emphasising the importance of manufacturing to school pupils and informing them of the opportunities that are available in the engineering sector and, indeed, all areas of manufacturing. One practical suggestion from a manufacturer is to help employers to run in-house training courses.
	I want to comment on RDAs because I did not get a chance to intervene on the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey). Some RDAs may have achieved their purpose, but I recently spoke at a conference organised by the Leicestershire Asian Business Association. There were 50 people in the room. Not one of them-I specifically asked the question-had a good word to say about their RDA, the East Midlands Development Agency. I am happy to listen but it is up to the regions to decide the best way to offer business support. The best way may be through local enterprise partnerships. It may be through keeping some form of regional structure, but I support the amendment to the motion.

Phil Wilson: First, I thank hon. Members on both sides of the House who have made their maiden speech today, especially my hon. Friends and neighbours the Members for North West Durham (Pat Glass) and for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop). They reminded me that the north-east of England is probably the most beautiful part of the country and that we discovered Australia as well, so we have a lot going for us.
	Today's debate is mainly about how we reduce the deficit and how to grow ourselves out of the problems that we have at the moment. My big worry about all the doom and gloom that we are getting from the Government, who are basically talking down the economy and talking down the country, is that we will end up in a spiralling, self-fulfilling prophecy where it is all doom and gloom. It is not just me who says that. On Sunday, a recent business survey by the Centre for Economics and Business Research was on the BBC's online news website. It stated:
	"Business confidence among UK firms has seen its biggest drop since 1995 due to the government's rhetoric on spending cuts, a survey suggests...there is a significant risk that the rhetoric has begun to impact on business confidence, and fears of the economic impact of spending cuts may be causing businesses to rein back on growth plans."
	So, it is not just the Labour party and the Opposition saying that; it is business itself, which will be fundamentally affected by the Government's current programme.
	Let me say something about employment. Previous Government intervention has meant that even though we are going through what is apparently the worst recession for 60 years, unemployment is nowhere near what it was in the 1980s and 1990s. Today's statistics put the figure for people claiming benefits at about 1.4 million or 1.5 million. In my constituency, the number of people who are out of work has fallen by 600 in the past year and by 140 in the past month. In the 1980s, that figure was 5,500, and 40% of those people had been out of work for 12 months or more.
	We all know the quote that has been mentioned twice today about the Tory Government of those days saying that unemployment was a price worth paying, but we do not need to go back to those days. We can look at last Thursday's Department for Communities and Local Government questions to find the Government's default position on their programme for cuts. When my right hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) asked,
	"is it not inevitable that those in greatest need will take the biggest cuts?",
	the Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill), without hesitation, stood up and said:
	"Those in greatest need ultimately bear the burden of paying off the debt".-[ Official Report, 10 June 2010; Vol. 511, c. 450.]
	That proves to me where the cuts are going to hit the most-local communities not just in the north-east of England but throughout the country. We have to be prepared for that, and one thing that prepares us for it is the regional development agencies.
	I must say that I am more confused now than I was at the beginning of the debate about what the Government's position is on RDAs. "The Coalition: our programme for government" document says on page 10:
	"We will support the creation of Local Enterprise Partnerships-joint local authority-business bodies brought forward by local authorities themselves to promote local economic development-to replace Regional Development Agencies (RDAs). These may take the form of the existing RDAs in areas where they are popular."
	After the Secretary of State spoke earlier, I kept asking myself, "When is an RDA not an RDA?" It seems, from what the Government are saying, that the answer is-when it is an RDA.
	Let us get some facts right about RDAs. First of all, they have trained more than 400,000 people and created more than 850,000 jobs over the last 10 years. They have helped nearly 60,000 businesses to start up and more than 110,000 businesses have benefited from a free business health check. RDAs brought forward funding of £100 million for regeneration projects, and they have launched transition loans to help businesses access finance. We are talking about a strategy for growth, but RDAs helped to deliver it.
	In my constituency, the RDA helped businesses such as Rock Farm Dairy to set up a new bottling facility. The RDA is creating jobs in the north of the constituency. The Printable Electronics Technology Centre-PETEC-is in Sedgefield village, at NETPark, the North East Technology Park. The hon. Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee) was on about space and science. From what I see at NETPark, I know that today's science fiction is tomorrow's reality. That work was being done with the help of the RDA and a Government who invested £12 million to promote it. The research and development facilities at PETEC have helped to protect more than 600 jobs at Thorn Lighting, just over the border in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman). That is creating high-value jobs, making sure that manufacturing jobs stay in this country and do not migrate to the far east or to eastern Europe.
	One NorthEast put investment of £10 million into NETPark to help set up headquarters for global science and technology companies, such as Kromek-global headquarters in the north-east of England. We should be proud of the fact that such companies are basing themselves in an area that in the past was used to deprivation and high unemployment. That investment was under a Government who were thinking ahead for the future well-being of local people.
	Newton Press is a small company in Newton Aycliffe that has just invested in £100,000-worth of new equipment. It is a family firm, going back over many years, employing 11 or 12 people; I know the owner, Syd Howarth. He had a phone call from One NorthEast to tell him that he could not have the £20,000 grant they were working on to fund a further two jobs, because the Government said that One NorthEast can no longer award grants. That may be only two jobs, but it will be two people off the unemployment total in my constituency. If those grants are being withdrawn all over the region, how many other people who could be in work will not be in work?
	The cuts are undermining growth in areas such as the north-east of England, which has suffered in the past. We should be thinking about the future, and ensuring that there is a future for people in places such as Sedgefield. One person's cut is another person's front line, especially in business where the front line could be the bottom line, too.
	What we have learned from the debate is that there is total confusion in the Government. What is their strategy for growth? The Government started the debate by saying that RDAs were safe, then they said that RDAs could be safe, then that they were not and now they are again. We need consistency and clarity from the Government, because the people I represent want certainty.

Kwasi Kwarteng: During the 2005 election, we were- [ Interruption ] . If I may continue.
	The general Aladdin's lamp approach was shown to be absurd. As the then Government kept rubbing the lamp and the genie came out, they asked for money, but the genie suddenly became rather less giving. At one point, the genie-in form of the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne)-wrote a letter and said, "There is no money. We have run out of money." The reason why we have done so is simply that we were spending too much.
	I have a Methodist background. My mother is a Methodist lay preacher, and she would tell the Sunday school, which I attended, about the seven fat years and the seven lean years. Those hon. Members who know the Old Testament will remember that Joseph had a dream in which dreamt of seven fat cows and then the seven lean cows.  [ Interruption. ] This is not very complicated; it is quite simple actually, so please bear with me. I know that Labour Members have concentration problems sometimes. I am sorry-it was a long time ago. The pharaoh had the dream and he spoke to Joseph.  [ Interruption. ] This is very important and interesting. He asked, "What does this mean?" and Joseph said very simply, "You will have seven fat years and seven lean years." The whole point is that we are meant to save money in the fat years, so that we can spend it in the lean years. The Labour Government comprehensively failed to do that. They thought that the fat years would run indefinitely. They thought that they had abolished boom and bust.
	The point of telling that simple story is to show comprehensively the reason for the cuts mentioned by the hon. Gentleman-I forget his constituency. [Hon. Members: "Sedgefield."] I apologise; I was perhaps confusing him with another Member for Sedgefield. The hon. Member for Sedgefield (Phil Wilson) referred to them as Tory cuts, but the simple story of Labour's failure to rein in Government spending in the boom is why we must make these cuts. They are not coming out of the blue or from savageness.

Phil Wilson: I was pointing out that, because of Government intervention, we were creating jobs, especially in the north-east of England, through the regional development agencies. We were not creating poverty; we were creating growth and prosperity. We took action when we were in government before the last election, and 500,000 fewer people are out work than if we had not done so.

Matthew Hancock: Is my hon. Friend aware that Great Britain went into the recession with the largest budget deficit in the developed world and that that was nothing to do with the banking crisis but was solely due to the management of economy by the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown)?

Alan Campbell: I would first mention the battle for savings that every police force has to deliver while protecting front-line services. However, I do not necessarily want to talk about that-I want to talk about the money that was in the budgets under the previous Government for a very good reason.
	This debate is not only about BIS but about the whole of Government. I hope that the Minister will have a word with colleagues in other Departments, for the sake of construction workers in my constituency. I hope that we can have a decision on Building Schools for the Future in north Tyneside. Our children deserve the best learning environment, but our construction workers deserve jobs, too. When the last new school in my constituency-Monkseaton high school-was built, more than half the construction jobs went to local people. When the then Leader of the Opposition, now the Prime Minister, went to the school, he praised the building. So let us have some commitment from the Government that gives certainty and ensures that Monkseaton high school was not literally the last new school to be built in my constituency.
	There was also money in the regional transport budget, but that budget has been frozen. That has caused me concern, but, more importantly, it has caused concern for local businesses and their representatives. There was £30 million in the budget to improve the A19-A1058 Silverlink roundabout. A driver who turns left at that roundabout goes to the new green technology park on the north bank of the Tyne. If they go straight over, they go to the Cobalt business park-the biggest private business park in the country, which is there because of co-operation between the public and the private sector in bringing those jobs to the area. If we do not get those improvements, then people who go through the new Tyne tunnel-delivered by the previous Labour Government-will end up in gridlock. A whole host of then shadow Ministers came to look at those roads and made promises to my constituents about what they would do. Well, they are in government now, so they had better start delivering on those promises. If the road network in the north-east is not upgraded, if we are excluded from the rapid rail link, and if the new runway at Heathrow does not take place, squeezing out the regional air links, why would an investor who comes to Great Britain think about putting their money into the north-east given that we do not have a transport network for the future to create future jobs?
	I want to concentrate on the regional development agency, which has been mentioned. Before the recession, the north-east had the fastest-growing economy of any region outside London. That did not happen despite Government action, it happened with it, and One NorthEast was part of that story.

Alan Campbell: No. The hon. Gentleman has had his chance.
	One NorthEast has been a leading player in the New and Renewable Energy Centre in Blyth and along the north bank of the Tyne, in low-carbon vehicles at Nissan on Wearside, and in the Printable Electronics Technology Centre in County Durham. Every one of those developments had at their heart a level of operation between private investors and the public sector. There may be support for small businesses for local authorities to pick up, but I am concerned that without such strategic action, the big national decisions will go elsewhere. My fear is that that will be bad news for the north-east.
	If the Government are getting rid of RDAs in England, as has been suggested, have they spoken to the devolved Administrations in Wales and Scotland about them getting rid of their RDAs? One of the first issues that I took up in 1997 was the case of LG Electronics. That company went to Wales because we in the north-east did not have the money, but the Welsh Development Agency did. LG did not stay there, but Wales pinched the jobs.
	Cuts in the RDA budget are already affecting jobs in my constituency: the Seafood Training Centre looks as if it will close its doors. Again, a troop of Conservative spokespersons went to that training agency and said how important it was, but now it is closing its doors, which is another bitter blow for the local fishing industry. That is why the Government need to be much clearer than they have been today about their plans for RDAs.
	The Business Secretary said that
	"changes depend very much on the reaction of local business and local authorities."-[ Official Report, 3 June 2010; Vol. 510, c. 556.]
	I can tell him that One NorthEast has the support of local authorities, five universities, the Northern Business Forum, the CBI, the chamber of commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Engineers Employers Federation, so let us see him get on and back them.
	Of course, we know why there is dither: there is disagreement at the heart of the coalition. The Communities and Local Government Secretary-the man with the money-wants the money to go to local enterprise partnerships, but the Business Secretary, who is in charge of the sponsoring Department, favours regional economic enterprise partnerships, rather like RDAs. As my hon. Friend the Member for Sedgefield (Phil Wilson) said, this afternoon we have simply heard confirmation of uncertainty. That adds to confusion, and it is not good for business.

Matthew Hancock: We have not heard a single consequence of the £50 billion cuts that the Labour party would have had to introduce had they won the election. That puts the Labour party out of the debate, and leaves it to others-especially those on this side of the House-to work out how we get our country out of this terrible mess.
	Over the past 13 years we have heard about the six regulations a day from the Secretary of State and the £11 billion cost each year of extra regulations. I used to say that we had the longest and most complicated tax code in the world except for India, until last year when India overtook us-I mean, when we overtook India. I will get it right eventually! Youth unemployment is the highest on record; we have had a record fall in business investment; and for all the hot air about manufacturing, the number of manufacturing firms in this country has fallen by a fifth over the past 13 years. We do not need to hear anything more from the Labour party about manufacturing as we try to turn the economy around.
	I am delighted that, in the agreement on in-year spending reductions of £6 billion, £50 million was found to put right part of the catastrophe in further education funding that happened under the last Labour Government, when so many promises were made with no funds attached, when the budget was completely overcommitted, and when the Government had to go around the country to half-started projects and take away the funding. Since the election, we have heard that that is the case in Department after Department, and that FE was just unlucky that it all came out before the election. So I welcome strongly the statement by the Minister for Universities and Science that that money will go to FE colleges and that we can try to put right some of that wrong and reduce the deficit in a way that does not cause the greatest possible damage. I will be writing to him today to argue the case for Haverhill college in my constituency. It was ready to go and had been allocated funding by the previous Government, but had the funding taken away at the last minute because they had overcommitted the budget. I welcome the £50 million that the Government have found to do that.
	More than all those things, and more than the Mandelson cheques we have heard about, businesses crave stability in the broader economy. Under the last Government, we had an asset price boom and bust, a credit boom and bust, uncertainty and complexity in the tax system, the longest recession in the world, the deepest recession since the war and the worst peace-time public finances in our history-and perhaps worse than all that, we had no answers to the questions of how to deal with those problems and of where growth would come from. I noted earlier that the shadow Secretary of State refused to say whether it was still Labour party policy to put a tax on jobs via an increase in national insurance, and I will be fascinated to hear whether the leadership candidates plan to argue next year that taxes should go up on every job in the country. Instead, all we have heard is the tinny sound of demands for cash and, from one hon. Member, a demand for an unfunded tax cut-those used to come from our party!

John Hayes: The hon. Lady is already a distinguished and articulate advocate of her cause-I note it from her many interventions in the debate. In an effort to be helpful on RDAs, may I recommend to her the National Audit Office report and the report that preceded it from the Public Accounts Committee, which makes it absolutely clear that in many instances the RDAs are cost-ineffective and insensitive to the very local circumstances that she champions?

Nadhim Zahawi: What does the hon. Lady think about scrapping the national insurance hike for employers? A lot of employers in my constituency will say that the real harmful thing to do to growth is to add to the cost of employing people, thus reducing the net income of a business. What does she think about that?

Rachel Reeves: I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. What he describes perhaps comes up less in my constituency than in some others, because average earnings in my constituency are £16,000 a year and the national insurance increase proposed by the previous Labour Government was to apply only to wages of more than £20,000 a year. So, that was less of a concern in my constituency.
	Britain is the sixth largest manufacturer in the world. If one believed some of the statements made by those on the Government Benches, one would think that the UK did not have a manufacturing industry at all-that is not the case. People in Yorkshire have huge pride in our industrial past. From wool to coal and steel, and to retail and finance, our industries have enriched the region-more than that, jobs and industry in Leeds and Yorkshire have helped to power the UK economy.
	The true test of this Government's strategy and their woolly words about local economic partnerships will be whether they can give local people and businesses a true sense of control over their economic future. That is what Yorkshire Forward and other RDAs have been doing; they have been promoting enterprise and driving economic growth across Britain.
	We now know-I am reading what I wrote before the intervention by the hon. Member for West Suffolk-that the RDAs are to be scrapped. Or are they? That wind-down has already started in Yorkshire. The  Yorkshire Evening Post today revealed that the proposed cuts to Yorkshire Forward mean that no fewer than 109 projects will see their support slashed and that that will affect 24,160 separate companies our region. Some £1 million that would have been used to help small and medium-sized enterprises to access finance is to be cut. Some £1.4 million that would have helped businesses and universities with research and development is to be cut. Some £2.4 million that would have been spent on Tower Works in Leeds to support the digital and creative industries in my city is to be scrapped.

Nick de Bois: What I am hearing today is that growth depends entirely on regional development agencies. We have to liberate businesses from the heavy hand of regulation and taxation that the Opposition imposed in the last Government. That is the way to growth. It is not entirely dependent on the regional development agencies to which the Opposition seem to be so wedded.

Nadhim Zahawi: Does my hon. Friend agree that the real problem with these quangos is accountability? A very good local charity in my constituency was the beneficiary of some money from Advantage West Midlands, and it was very grateful for that money. When it asked, "How would you like us to report on our achievement?" the RDA said, "Oh, just write a report; it doesn't really matter." So, there is no real accountability. Will she expand on that point and on how the coalition's policy will bring to local people the accountability that will make the difference in terms of efficiency of delivery?

Chi Onwurah: As my right hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South East (Mr McFadden) said at the beginning of the debate, we stand on the brink of a new industrial revolution.
	Let me declare two interests. Newcastle was at the leading edge of the first, high-carbon industrial revolution, so we have an interest in seeing a resurgence of industry and manufacturing. As an engineer, I too want to see manufacturing and industrial resurgence. But it is not my interests that lead me. There are five global challenges that require a new industrial response.
	First, population and economic growth across the world are stoking demand. Secondly, the global financial crisis has made it extremely important that we grow other sectors. Thirdly, climate change is making many of our ways of building and manufacturing things inefficient. Fourthly, the population of the western world is ageing. That is a good thing; it is good that people are living longer, but it requires different markets and goods, for example, more automotive goods. Finally, globalisation means global markets and global industries.
	On the Opposition Benches, we believe that we need to grow our way out of the global financial crisis. The challenges I have enumerated give us many opportunities for growth in the UK, in the north-east in particular; for example, in renewable energies such as wind power, which is why the previous Government invested in NaREC-the New and Renewable Energy Centre-a world-class testing facility for wind turbines in Blyth. Sustainable transport provides another opportunity for growth, which is why the previous Government invested in it by giving grants to enable Nissan to build the electric car facility in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson).
	Some months ago, I visited Newcastle university's electrical engineering department, where I saw the world-leading research into electric motors that is taking place as a result of the previous Government's increased funding for research and development. Another example relates to ageing with dignity, as promoted by the centre for ageing and vitality in Newcastle.
	We stand at the brink of enormous industrial change and the potential for enormous industry growth. The Government have two possible responses. They can leave things to the market, get out of the way-such a well-loved phrase-and let the existing capital and goods markets figure everything out, or they can put in place the economic and active industrial policies that will support industry. The Government seem to have decided to do the former; or having listened to the words of the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, I would say that they have decided to do the former while professing to do the latter. I want to say why that is not in this country's or even the coalition Government's interests.
	As I have said, I am engineer by profession. I also spent three years getting an MBA to hone my business and management skills. I have worked in France, the US, Nigeria and the UK, as well as travelling extensively for my work. I have seen many different combinations of private and public sector involvement, including the raw entrepreneurship of Lagos street markets. Having listened to Conservative Members expressing their contempt for all regulation, including that on health and safety, I now understand that that is the kind of market economy that they want to bring to this country. I have also worked in the highly regulated labour markets of Germany. I have helped to build small businesses, to grow medium-sized ones and to expand multinationals. I have also helped to set up the framework for the public sector regulation of the telecommunications industry. So I know from bitter experience just how difficult it is to create the virtuous cycle of investment, innovation and job creation.
	Let me tell hon. Members what I have found that works. The role of the private sector is crucial-it mobilises investment, creates jobs, innovates and takes risks-but the public sector is equally important. The right regulatory environment gives investors the confidence to invest and helps smaller companies to compete on a level playing field. By providing grants and incentives for innovation and investment and using the public sector procurement process intelligently, the public sector can help emergent industries to flourish. By directing funds to build the right infrastructure, the public sector helps ideas to become businesses. Conservative Members are right: the public sector does not create jobs, but it can provide the soil and fertiliser to enable them to grow. So we need active individuals, partnered by industrial activism. A proactive partnership between the public and private sectors is essential if the UK is to take a leading role in the world's low-carbon future.

David Anderson: No, I won't-I'll tell you the orders, right?
	The Robin Hood tax-a tax on banks' international financial transactions-was rubbished by Government Members, but it would take care of a big chunk of expenditure on public services. Public sector workers are asking me, "Why should we pay Dave? Why should we carry the can for the failures of the banks? Why should we have to lose our jobs? Why should we have to stop looking after people we want to look after, when people who have robbed this country blind are getting away with more robbery?" Everyone in this House should agree with that.
	I will say it: we should put the national insurance contribution charges on employers as well as on the work force. Why should it be the work force alone who carry the can? If the Liberal Democrats have a voice in this place, I would like to ask them what they would do to pay for the £17 billion of tax cuts. I am all for giving tax cuts to the low paid, but why should people at the level of pay we get also benefit from those tax cuts, when we will be shutting hospitals and schools and sacking home care workers? We keep hearing that we are all in this together. It is like a vuvuzela sounded every week by George Osborne, or a rattle in the background. No one in the working class believes that we are all in this together-nobody who works in school meals or hospitals. They know that those with money will be looked after and those without will go to the wall. That is the way that it has always been in this country. Saying something often and loudly does not make it any truer.
	Should my party say sorry? No, it should not, because it stopped this country going into depression as a result of the failures of global finance and capitalism. We stopped that being any worse. The G20 said clearly that the actions we took brought the country into recovery more quickly than it would otherwise have been the case.
	The most ludicrous suggestion is one in, one out for regulation. That is daft. Who decides which regulation should be done away with to bring in another one? It is nonsense and it should be abandoned now.

Ian Lucas: It is a delight to wind up this debate with you in the Chair, Mr Deputy Speaker. As we have already heard, your interest in manufacturing and in representing your constituents has been a feature of the House for many years.
	I am pleased to have had this opportunity to debate the importance of Government support for industry. Some of the least endearing aspects-among many-of the Tory-Lib Dem Government are their willingness to misrepresent the policies of the previous Government, to be less than candid about their own past policy positions, and to adopt language that threatens the developing partnership for growth in UK industry which was the legacy of the Labour Government.
	First, I pay tribute to the quality of the debate today and, in particular, the maiden speeches. The hon. Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee) gave us a very good joke about "Earnest". It is always good to have a doctor in the House-we had Dr Howard Stoate until the election-and we know where to come if there are any difficulties in the Tea Room. The north-east had a very loud voice in the Chamber today, in maiden speeches and others. My hon. Friend the Member for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) told us about his constituency and of the excellent Newbiggin by the sea, with which I am very familiar. From my home county, my hon. Friend the Member for North West Durham (Pat Glass) told us about the beauty of her constituency, which is unparalleled in Britain and should be visited by all hon. Members.
	We heard also from my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley East (Michael Dugher), who appears to be a natural in the House. With the Grimethorpe colliery band in his constituency, he is well qualified to be the chair of the all-party brass band group, and he can put me down as a member. I welcome him to the House.
	My hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop) spoke movingly about his predecessor, Ashok Kumar, whom we all miss. He was valued not only in the House, but-as I know from ministerial visits to the north-east-was greatly valued by the community there. He will be sadly missed. I am sure that his successor will establish himself quickly in the House and make many contributions.
	We also heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Julie Hilling), who let us know that the Reebok stadium is in her constituency. Bolton Wanderers are in the premiership, and that is where my hon. Friend will be with her contributions in the future.
	For the past two years, the UK has faced, first, a world banking crisis and, second, a world economic crisis. As anyone willing to approach matters with an open mind must see, this crisis has affected all the world's major economies, including the United States, Germany, France and Japan, as well as developing economies such as China and India. Against this backcloth, the previous UK Government had a choice either to pursue deflationary policies espoused by the Conservative party or to pursue policies designed to maintain employment and protect growth espoused by every other major economy.
	For those of us who witnessed first hand the consequences of Tory Government policy in the 1980s and 1990s, when UK unemployment reached 3.5 million on two separate occasions, the choice was clear, and I am proud that the Labour Government acted to maintain employment and protect the fundamentals of our productive economy. That is why Opposition Members speak so passionately about the involvement of, for example, regional development agencies, and about their communities, which were devastated by the consequences of laissez-faire Tory economic policy in the 1980s and 1990s.
	One of the features of this debate, which the Minister for Universities and Science did not attend, was the fact that Conservative Members are out of the Thatcherite school. That was clear when they spoke. What we did not hear, however, were Liberal Democrat voices-the only Liberal Democrat to make a substantial contribution in the debate was the Secretary of State. He does not have any support from his Back Benches; no speeches were made by the Liberal Democrats. Were I him and looking for their support, I would look well behind me.
	As Gregg and Wadsworth have pointed out in the  National Institute Economic  Review, as a result of Labour action and intervention in the economy in the world recession, employment rates did not shrink at the same rate as in previous recessions, despite the reduction in productive capacity. This was due to the Government pursuing a Keynesian reflationary policy and the contribution of employers and trade unions, working together to agree reduced wages and hours. As a result, more people stayed in work and their homes, and Britain moved out of recession.
	The Labour Government played a key role by creating the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which I note has been retained in the same form by the Tory-Liberal Democrat Government, and which acted to support manufacturing. Its new industry, new jobs strategy-an active industrial strategy-set the framework for its developing relationship with industry. I, for one, will always be grateful to those senior representatives of companies and trade unions who worked with me and gave their time freely in bodies such as the manufacturing advisory group, and I would like to use this opportunity to thank them for their commitment. If there is one piece of advice I would give to my successor-I am delighted he has finally been able to join us-it would be not to jettison this well of good advice, and I would welcome his assurance that he will continue to work with that group.
	Partly as a result of the Labour Government's close contacts with industry and trade unions, we introduced a car scrappage scheme. It is striking that we are hearing a different argument from the Conservative party. In 2008 and 2009, the then Opposition were saying that the Labour Government were spending too little, too slowly on supporting the economy-for example, I received criticism from the BIS Committee that the automotive assistance programme was not paying out fast enough-but today we are hearing from Conservative Members that the programme was a flagrant waste of money.
	Building on the relationship that we established in our work on the car scrappage scheme, the Labour Government established the UK Automotive Council, which I am happy to see has been retained by the Tory-Liberal Dem Government, to build on past inward investment into UK industry and to make the UK a centre for low-carbon manufacturing. As a consequence, and working with Government, investors such as General Motors, Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan all made commitments to the UK that would secure jobs in manufacturing. Very important work is being done by the UK Automotive Council relating to the development of the UK manufacturing supply chain, and it is important that continues.
	The UK's aerospace industry is the second largest manufacturer in the world, with companies such as Airbus, AgustaWestland and GKN looking to work with the Government by establishing a national composites centre in Bristol. There is a complete failure among Conservative Members to understand the importance and strength of the UK manufacturing industry.
	We have a great deal to be proud of in this country, and it is quite disgraceful that the Government parties seem to talk down UK manufacturing so much. I invite them to go up to the Tyne-we have heard a lot from the north-east this afternoon-and see the Clipper site on the north bank, which is manufacturing a new generation of wind turbines, showing the Labour Government's commitment to a low-carbon future.
	If the Tory-Lib Dem Government's rhetoric about a low-carbon economy is to mean anything, the Secretary of State must act to end the marginalisation of his Department in the Government, stop the Treasury running the show and fight for UK industry. One of the white flags of surrender that he put up today was the fact that he is going to scrap the RDAs-I think that that is where we ended up, after his tortuous exposition of coalition policy. The RDAs are extremely important. The north-east of England has a great champion in One NorthEast, which has brought investment from companies such as Nissan to the UK, when it could have gone elsewhere in Europe. Portugal fought hard for that money; One NorthEast and the Labour Government achieved it.
	We must retain the competitive advantage that was built on Labour's huge investment in science and our universities, but that cannot be done if the Government will not support UK industry, because there are European competitor countries that will support theirs, as I always witnessed at European Council meetings. Any reduction in the UK's budget deficit must be built on three pillars: reductions in spending, tax changes and, equally importantly, economic growth. The Work Foundation's recent paper makes some important points, not least that
	"any successful deficit reduction strategy must include a strategy for encouraging growth and jobs".
	To date, the Secretary of State appears to have no understanding of that central truth, which was pointed out again by my right hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor over the weekend.
	To hear the Prime Minister and the Chancellor trashing inward investment by major globalised manufacturers is quite astonishing. Do the Tory-Lib Dem Government not want Airbus, General Motors, Ford and Clipper to invest in the UK? The idea, peddled by the parties on the Government Benches, that detailed agreements with inward investors, which were worked out over many months, were not a good deal for Britain is simply not true. That accusation should be withdrawn immediately. Will the parties on the Government Benches tell us which of those partnership agreements was not good value? We are still waiting to hear that-I am prepared to wait longer, if they would like to intervene and tell us. If they cannot do that, they should stop demoralising British manufacturers and British industry.

David Willetts: I am delighted that we have had so many firsts in this debate. It is the first in which I have participated with you and other new Deputy Speakers in the Chair, Mr Deputy Speaker, and we very much welcome you. We have also heard the speeches from the new Chairs of the Select Committees that will take a close interest in our deliberations: I welcome the speeches by the hon. Members for West Bromwich West (Mr Bailey) and for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Andrew Miller).
	Above all, we have had some very welcome maiden speeches in the debate, and I pay tribute to the excellent speeches from new colleagues, including my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Dr Lee). He spoke as a doctor, and also with great passion for space and the importance of the space industry. That cause is also close to my heart, and I welcome him to the Chamber. I hope that we shall be able to work together on that important subject.
	We also heard from the hon. Member for Bolton West (Julie Hilling), and I agree with her about the importance of Unionlearn. It is an excellent and cost-effective way of spreading access to skills in the workplace. We heard from the hon. Member for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery), who spoke of the importance of the coal industry to his constituency. We also heard from the hon. Member for North West Durham (Pat Glass), who explained that her predecessor had been Hilary Armstrong, and that Hilary Armstrong's predecessor had been Ms Armstrong's father. We therefore welcome this radical break with the hereditary principle, and welcome the hon. Lady to the House. She also referred to socialism in her speech. We do not hear the word "socialism" in the Chamber very often, but we enjoyed her contribution all the same.
	The hon. Member for Barnsley East (Michael Dugher) spoke with great passion about brass bands. Just occasionally, the meaning of the word "socialism" is a bit fuzzy when used by Labour Members, but, having heard his speech about brass bands, we now know that a socialist utopia will have been achieved when the Arts Council devotes as much money to brass bands as it does to the Royal Opera House. We very much look forward to the hon. Gentleman's advocacy of that cause.

David Willetts: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. To indicate the challenge that we face, the previous Government introduced 20,938 new regulations. Between 1987 and 1997, 46 pieces of primary legislation affected the workplace. In the subsequent 10 years under the Labour Government, 92 pieces of legislation affected the workplace. In the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, working with the Secretary of State, we have already identified on our forward programme 200 proposed regulations inherited from the outgoing Government that would have cost more than £5 billion to British business. Every one of those will be scrutinised, and we will roll back the burden of regulation, which is fundamental.
	We believe in "rebalancing the economy", and although those are the new words, I sometimes think that Winston Churchill, who served in the House as a member of the Liberal party and of the Conservative party, expressed it best when he said that he wanted to see finance less proud and industry more content. That is what the Government stand for. Getting a grip on the public finances is fundamental, because otherwise, as my hon. Friends the Members for West Suffolk (Matthew Hancock) and for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid) described powerfully, interest rates will rise, which is a burden that British industry cannot be expected to bear. We need to bring down the burden of public borrowing and of the public finances.
	The Government are not alone in believing in that-former Ministers who are now on the Opposition Benches signed up to such plans in government. They have failed today to give us any information about their plans to deliver the savings to which they publicly committed themselves. Let me remind them of what was in last year's pre-Budget report with regard to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. It said that £300 million would be saved by reducing funding on adult skills budgets, and £600 million would be saved from higher education and science and research budgets. I agree with Labour Members about the importance of science, although it is a pity that they fought the last election on a proposal to save £600 million from higher education and science but have never informed us of exactly how they would have made those savings. We will now deliver the savings, and they are in no position to criticise the savings that they planned for but never had the guts to share with us and explain.
	The Government are committed to a strategy for growth that involves an enterprise-friendly tax system, support for science, support for free trade and competition, a belief in investment in skills and training, and rolling back the burden of regulation, setting British industry free. As every contribution to the debate has revealed, there is a simple difference between the Government and Opposition. The Government believe in freedom, enterprise, initiative and competition, and the Labour party still believes in state control, higher public expenditure, more regulation, more RDAs, and more interference in the wealth-creating sector of the British economy. That is not the way in which we will recover from the recession in which the Labour party left the country.
	The Government will commit ourselves to bringing down the burden of borrowing and managing the public finances prudently. In the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, in which it is a privilege to work with the Secretary of State, we are determined to have a more flexible and dynamic industrial sector because of our commitment to free trade and free markets.
	 Question put (Standing Order No. 31(2), That the original words stand part of the Question.
	 The House proceeded to a Division.

Horton General Hospital

Tony Baldry: I am grateful to Mr Speaker for allowing this debate on the future of services at the Horton general hospital in Banbury. This continues to be one of the most important constituency campaigns in which I have been involved during my time as a Member of Parliament. I am pleased to see in their places my constituency neighbours and hon. Friends the Members for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom) and for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi). Their presence in the Chamber makes the point that the Horton general hospital's catchment area, which is home to some 190,000 people, reaches well into Northamptonshire and Warwickshire.
	The Horton general hospital also provides services for a significant part of Oxfordshire, including a sizeable part of the constituency of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. I am also grateful for the support of my hon. Friends the Members for Henley (John Howell) and for Oxford West and Abingdon (Nicola Blackwood), who, as usual, show great Oxfordshire solidarity on such important issues.
	I am also pleased to see the Minister of State, Department of Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Mr Burns), at the Dispatch Box, as he has taken particular trouble to ensure that he is briefed to respond to what I will say in this evening's debate.
	On Monday, the board of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust met in public in Banbury. Its meeting had only one agenda item: the Horton general hospital, to agree a vision for the hospital and proposals for the enhancement of services at the Horton. The ORH Trust board agreed to implement proposals made by the Oxfordshire primary care trust that would ensure 24/7 consultant-delivered children's services, a 24/7 special care baby unit and a significant enhancement of consultant-led maternity and obstetric services at the Horton and the employment of further consultant anaesthetists for the hospital-all of which will also enhance the robustness of the accident and emergency service.
	The chair of the ORH Trust, Dame Fiona Caldicott, and the trust board's paper made it very clear that
	"The Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust is committed to a positive and vibrant future for the Horton General Hospital"
	and that they and the Oxfordshire PCT want to see a situation where
	"the vast majority of care required by the people of Banbury and the neighbouring communities will be delivered from an innovative and modern local District General Hospital working closely with primary care and other health and social partners."
	They made it clear that
	"the strategy of the Horton General Hospital must exploit the very real strengths of the Horton to develop innovative ways of providing care in order to address the present challenges within a very difficult financial environment"
	and that
	"the objective will be to advance the opportunity to use the Horton General Hospital as the basis of a newer model for providing care where there is greater integration between services provided in a hospital setting and community based services while maintaining the appropriate level of immediate/emergency service support needed by the population."
	A strategy is needed that exploits the strengths of "Banburyshire", as there is a general recognition that the area served by the Horton benefits from some unique strengths that must be fully exploited. In its vision for the future of the Horton hospital, the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust has noted that
	"the Horton is in a similar position to many other small District General Hospitals across the country. It should be an objective of the strategy to articulate a vision that will position the Horton as a national exemplar of how the challenges faced by such hospitals can be addressed in a positive and effective manner."
	Of course, as has been recognised by everyone involved with the Horton general hospital in recent years, if it is to aspire to be a national exemplar, its services will need continuously to change if they are to continue to meet in a clinically and financially sustainable manner the evolving health needs of the populations of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and the surrounding areas that the hospital serves.
	All this is very welcome news. I have no desire in this debate to dwell on the past, but it is important to explain how far we have all travelled in a campaign that has lasted for some seven years.
	It was in July 2003 that the  Banbury Guardian reported on its front page:
	"The children's ward at Banbury's Horton Hospital is under serious threat and could be reduced to a daytime-only service...staff on the ward were gathered together by bosses this week and warned that current pressures could spell the end of the 24-hour acute paediatric services the Horton has enjoyed for the past 27 years.
	A senior children's doctor said the end of children's services could mean the demise of other Horton Departments."
	Without 24/7 consultant-covered children's services, it would not longer have been possible for the hospital to have a special care baby unit. Without a special care baby unit it would effectively have been impossible to have had a consultant-led maternity service, and the maternity unit at the Horton would have become a midwife-led unit with a very large number of mothers, many of them in labour, being obliged to go to Oxford to deliver their babies, and there would have been a cumulative knock-on effect to the effectiveness of the accident and emergency unit. In short, if those proposals had gone ahead seven years ago, the Horton would have ceased to be a general hospital and simply become a somewhat random collection of medical services.
	This is not the opportunity and time does not permit me to give a full account of the exemplary way in which local people rose up to confront this challenge. The "Keep the Horton General" campaign, ably led by local Labour Councillor George Parish, now chair of the Cherwell district council, ensured that soon the whole community was involved in a campaign to "Keep the Horton General". In due course the then proposals for downgrading services at the Horton were referred to Oxfordshire county council health overview committee, which unanimously decided to refer the proposals to the then Secretary of State, Alan Johnson, with the recommendation that they be referred to the independent reconfiguration panel-the IRP.
	The then Secretary of State did exactly that. The IRP took evidence and produced a report. The IRP's report was very clear. It concluded that
	"our main focus is always the patient."
	The report continued:
	"The Horton General Hospital in Banbury must continue to serve the local community in North Oxfordshire and surrounding areas...we concluded that the local community's access to services would be seriously compromised if the Trust proposals were implemented. Panel members were particularly concerned about the difficult and costly journeys that local people would need to make to Oxford and felt this might even prevent or delay some people from seeking medical advice or treatment. The Trust's proposals are not in the best interests of patients, families and carers."
	The IRP went on to state that
	"local patient choice and access must also be a priority and that there are other possible solutions to the Horton Hospital".
	Not surprisingly, the chair of the IRP, Dr. Peter Barrett, commented:
	"During the course of this review we were left in no doubt that local people are passionate about the Horton Hospital. The hospital is well located for the population it serves, and the Trust's dedicated staff will play a vital role in the future success of the organisation. All parties should now work together to redevelop the proposals in response to our recommendations".
	The IRP recommended that Oxfordshire primary care trust should develop a clear vision for children's and maternity services and a clear strategy for hospital services within north Oxfordshire as a whole.
	It should be put on the record that I have no doubt that among the factors that caused the IRP to come to such robust conclusions were the very clear and unequivocal views put forward by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister when he, as the local Member of Parliament for Witney, but also at the time Leader of the Opposition, gave evidence to the IRP, along with myself and my hon. Friends' predecessors, John Maples and Tim Boswell, both of whom I am delighted to see will shortly go to the other place, where I am sure they will continue to champion the interests of the Horton general hospital.
	My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made it very clear to the IRP that as far as he was concerned, the only things that mattered were the best interests and the health care of his constituents, a view supported without equivocation by the Horton's other Members of Parliament.
	It is right that I should report to the House that in the just over two years since March 2008 when the IRP published its recommendations, the leadership and staff of the Oxfordshire primary care trust and the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust have worked tirelessly and in an exemplary manner, on a process that sought to involve the whole community in finding a solution that works. Too many people have been involved in the process-the PCT, the Banbury better healthcare programme, and the community partnership forum, ably chaired by Julia Cartwright-for me to be able to name and thank them individually, but they all know who they are and they deserve our thanks.
	During the time that this work was going on, we had visits to the Horton hospital from my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, and several visits to Banbury by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health. Indeed, I do not think there was a single Opposition health spokesperson in the last Parliament who at some point did not come and visit the Horton hospital. The last Labour Secretary of State for Health, the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), came and visited the staff and patients at the Horton and observed:
	"I am very impressed. This is a much loved hospital which is crucially important to Banbury...there have been question marks over the hospital for too long and that will have had a destabilising effect on any hospital. I came to signal my commitment to the Horton. The time has come to take away the doubts. There comes a point where you have to take a decision".
	We were grateful for the visit of the previous Secretary of State and are grateful that decisions to support the Horton hospital have been taken. I am now concerned to look to the future. I want, so far as is humanly possible, to ensure that we will never again have to pursue a seven-year-long campaign to keep Horton general hospital.
	I very much welcome my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to the Department of Health, together with an impressive ministerial team. He is probably better prepared than any of his predecessors, and his knowledge of the NHS is as impressive in private meetings as it is in his public speeches. I suspect that people have seriously underestimated the scale of the ambition of the new Government in their health policies. Health professionals are swiftly starting to recognise that the Government's proposed programme is intended fundamentally to change the health care system and has the intention of shifting power from the centre to patients and clinicians. The Secretary of State obviously has a clear vision of where he wants the NHS to get to over time.
	There are several issues on which I would welcome the Minister's thoughts. There is going to be commissioning by GPs with funding going directly to them for such commissioning. When the Secretary of State visited the Horton, he made it clear that he believed that GP commissioning would potentially be a great support to the Horton that would enable the many GPs in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Northamptonshire who refer their patients to the Horton to collectively commission services at the hospital and help to develop new services. We will want actively to engage with local GPs in support of the Horton.
	What is the timetable for the transition to GP commissioning? What will then be the role for primary care trusts? The Horton has only one potential weakness-it is a smaller general hospital. The cost of underpinning the new consultant appointments at the Horton will effectively be about £2.5 million over tariff. That is an annual cost that will be shared between the PCT and Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust. It is the price of maintaining services in a smaller general hospital serving a significant catchment area, where the distances to the next general hospital are such as to justify extra investment in maintaining services at the Horton. But who in the new system will make the value judgments and have the funds to ensure the continuity of care at the Horton? I understand that in due course there will be an independent board to set standards in the NHS, allocate resources and oversee the system. Can my hon. Friend provide more details?
	My next concern relates to consultant provision. The effect of the European working time directive is that there has been a need for more doctors. I think I am correct that the previous Government were the only Government in the European Union who decided to interpret the directive in such a way that training counted as work. A few days ago, the British Medical Association issued a response to the review of the impact of the working time directive on training, concluding that
	"the review defines and calls for a consultant-delivered service. The BMA has long advocated a service organised in this way-it will assure a high quality of care for patients as and when they are in the greatest need."
	By developing consultant-delivered services at the Horton, we are in the vanguard of this trend, but the Government will of course need to ensure as time goes on that there are sufficient consultants to take up these places.
	Medicine and medical training is one of the few disciplines where the numbers are almost entirely controlled by the state. I fully appreciate that medical manpower planning involves a whole number of difficulties in getting it right. However, all too often in the past, there has been a tendency to believe that if at any time we have insufficient doctors, we will always be able to busk it by recruiting doctors from overseas. For all sorts of reasons, that is now becoming much more difficult, and I think we all need to be confident that there will be sufficient training places today to ensure that there will be sufficient consultants tomorrow. Moreover, we should not in any way underestimate the changes in work practices that a consultant-delivered service will bring about. I would like to give particular thanks to Dr Janet Craze and the consultant paediatricians at the ORH Trust for the incredible work that they have done in devising consultants' rotas that will enable there to be effective 24/7 consultant-delivered paediatric services at both John Radcliffe and the Horton.
	I have two brief final points. First, Horton general hospital is not the only small general hospital in the country. Such hospitals exist because the geography is not convenient, and they usually have a particular purpose in serving a significant community. Will my hon. Friend support any initiative that would bring those smaller general hospitals together in an alliance to see how they can maximise their contribution to the NHS and, in particular, how they can become, such as we hope that Horton will become, an exemplar of how best to integrate community primary and hospital services? Secondly, I very much hope that my hon. Friend, given his ministerial responsibility for hospital services, will find time to visit Horton general hospital. I know that such a visit would be much appreciated by staff and patients, by me and my hon. Friends, and by our constituents.
	There can be no conclusion to this debate because much of the story of Horton general hospital is yet to be written. I am simply glad that by our collective endeavours, we have managed to "Keep the Horton General". All the many thousands who have taken part in this campaign, in whatever way-by petitioning, writing letters, offering professional advice, or just being there-can take pride in what we have achieved. But let me be very clear: as far as I am concerned, the well-being and welfare of Horton general hospital will always be unfinished business.

Simon Burns: I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) on securing this debate on the future of Horton general hospital. I know that he has campaigned vigorously in support of the hospital for several years, and I am sure that his constituents appreciate both his hard work and his dedication to protecting good local health services in his constituency. I also pay tribute to the NHS staff across the whole of Oxfordshire, who provide such first-class care for his constituents.
	As my hon. Friend will know, the Secretary of State has visited his constituency a number of times, and has seen for himself the excellent work carried out daily at Horton general hospital. I would be delighted to accept my hon. Friend's offer to visit Horton myself, so that I, too, can benefit from knowledge of the experience that his constituents enjoy.

Simon Burns: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing that to my attention. Given the constraints of time in this debate, if he were to be kind enough to write or to come and see me, I would be more than happy to discuss the situation with him.
	My hon. Friend the Member for Banbury referred to the decision made by the board of Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust on Monday this week to maintain 24-hour paediatric services and a full obstetrics service at Horton general hospital. That is good news, and thanks in no small part to the strong opposition mounted by local GPs, clinicians and the public to the trust's original plans that were proposed in 2007. In addition, my hon. Friend and my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister-in his constituency role-my former hon. Friends Tim Boswell and John Maples, and my new hon. Friends the Members for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi) and for South Northamptonshire (Andrea Leadsom), should be congratulated on the determined way in which they have fought for their constituents in seeking to stop the original proposals, which would have meant paediatric in-patient services moving from the Horton to the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, with the problems that that would cause for their constituents.
	Following the rejection of the original plans in 2008 by the independent reconfiguration board, Oxfordshire PCT set up the better healthcare programme to develop proposals on how safe, long-term services at Horton might be delivered. It established a community partnership forum to ensure wide engagement with the local community, which included representation from local GPs, patients, the public, Horton general hospital staff, councillors and Members of the House. I am aware that my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury played a long and active role in those deliberations.
	I am pleased to note that local engagement has been such a key part of the better healthcare programme. I understand that the community partnership forum has been involved throughout, and that frequent briefings were held with GPs and the practice-based commissioning consortia. Clinical staff at Horton general and John Radcliffe hospitals have also been involved, to ensure wide clinical engagement.
	The model of care that emerged from the better healthcare programme was for consultant-delivered paediatrics and obstetrics services to remain at Horton general. That will mean less reliance on middle-grade doctors, and result in Horton continuing to provide local, high-quality paediatric and maternity services. The Oxfordshire health overview and scrutiny committee agreed with that model.
	In March, the proposals developed to implement that model were presented to a clinical review panel. The panel consisted of local GPs, representatives from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Royal College of Anaesthetists, Cherwell district council and a PCT board member. Although I understand that the panel had some concerns, it concluded that the proposals were clinically safe and deliverable. Now that the PCT and trust boards have decided to go ahead with these proposals, the next step is for the trust to develop an implementation plan. That will involve recruiting the required number of additional consultants.
	I am pleased that Oxfordshire PCT and South Central SHA have both assured me that the better healthcare programme has passed the four tests set out by the Secretary of State, which have been a strong feature of the way the programme has been organised. As my hon. Friend will appreciate, the four tests to which I refer are the new tests that the Secretary of State has laid down to ensure that when reconfiguration proposals are made, local GPs and clinicians-and local communities-are fully consulted before any decisions are made, so that they can have a say in the health care that they need.
	My hon. Friend asked a number of questions that I will seek to answer now as far as I can. He asked about the timetable for the transition to GP commissioning and the future role of primary care trusts. As he knows, we have only been in government a matter of weeks and a tremendous amount of work needs to be done to begin to realise our vision for an NHS based on putting patients first so that quality of care is the priority in the service. In that context, we will set out our vision for the national health service shortly. Until we do, I am not in a position to respond in detail to those two specific questions.
	My hon. Friend asked about the independent NHS Board. The board will set outcome objectives, allocate resources and provide commissioning guidelines free from political interference. Again, I beg my hon. Friend's patience as we will set out further details of the NHS Board shortly. I am sure that he appreciates that I cannot go into detail at this stage and while we are putting together our proposals to bring before the House and the nation.
	My hon. Friend also raised the idea of an initiative to bring together an alliance of general hospitals to help provide the best integrated primary, community and hospital care. Like him, I believe that it is vital to have first-class integrated health and community services, and I assure him that we are looking at how we might best achieve that.
	I applaud the determination that my hon. Friend, and my other hon. Friends-I am pleased to see them in their places tonight-have shown in their championing of local services in Banbury and in other areas affected by these proposals. His constituents, like those of all hon. Members, deserve good local health services that have the full support of local GPs, clinicians and the local community and provide the highest standards of quality and care. By seeking the support of GPs and local people for any changes made, by basing any changes on clear evidence, and by ensuring that all changes improve patient choice, the enhanced services in Oxfordshire will inevitably lead to better care for my hon. Friends' constituents, not only in that area but in those parts of south Northamptonshire and Warwickshire that form part of this hospital area.
	In conclusion, I am pleased that the plans that have finally been devised through local involvement and commitment have solved a potential problem. It shows that, by consulting with local stakeholders and the local community, one can achieve the sort of configuration that meets the needs of local people as well as the needs of a local national health service. In particular, I congratulate my hon. Friend on the tremendous work and leadership that he has provided in ensuring that the local community, working together, achieved the successful outcome determined last Monday. I wish him and the local health service in Banbury and the surrounding area every success in ensuring that these proposals work, and work well, for the benefit of the local community.
	 Question put and agreed to.
	 House adjourned.
	Correction
	 Official Report, 15 June 2010: At col. 846, after motion Pay for Chairs of Select Committees (No. 2), add-

BACKBENCH BUSINESS COMMITTEE (REVIEW)

Resolved,
	That, in the opinion of this House, the operation of the Backbench Business Committee should be reviewed at the beginning of the next Session of Parliament.- (Sir George Young.)
	After motion September Sittings, add-

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE (PRIVATE MEMBERS' BILLS)

Ordered,
	That Private Members' Bills shall have precedence over Government business on 22 October, 12 and 19 November and 3 December 2010 and 21 January, 4 and 11 February, 4 and 18 March, 1 April, 13 May and 10 and 17 June 2011.- (Sir George Young.)